Johann Sebastian Bach BACH COLLEGIUM JAPAN Masaaki Suzuki Robin Blaze, alto Masaaki Suzuki Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust Front cover photo of Robin Blaze: © K. Miura Photo of Masaaki Suzuki: © Marco Borggreve BIS-SACD-1621 BIS-SACD-1621 Cantatas:booklet 17/9/07 11:57 Page 2 BACH, Johann Sebastian (1685–1750) Cantatas 37 · Solo Cantatas Gott soll allein mein Herze haben, BWV 169 23'03 Kantate zum 18. Sonntag nach Trinitatis (20. Oktober 1726) Text: [2–6] anon; [7] Martin Luther 1524 Oboe d’amore I, II, Taille, Violino I, II, Viola, Soprano, Alto, Tenore, Basso, Organo obbligato, Continuo 1 1. Sinfonia 8'04 2 2. Arioso. Gott soll allein mein Herze haben … 2'25 3 3. Aria. Gott soll allein mein Herze haben … 5'43 4 4. Recitativo. Was ist die Liebe Gottes?… 0'42 5 5. Aria. Stirb in mir … 4'35 6 6. Recitativo. Doch meint es auch dabei … 0'24 7 7. Choral. Du süße Liebe, schenk uns deine Gunst … 0'54 Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust, BWV 170 23'11 Kantate zum 6. Sonntag nach Trinitatis (28. Juli 1726) Text: Georg Christian Lehms 1711 Oboe d’amore, Violino I, II, Viola, Alto, Organo obbligato, Continuo 8 1. Aria. Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust … 6'33 9 2. Recitativo. Die Welt, das Sündenhaus … 1'16 10 3. Aria. Wie jammern mich doch die verkehrten Herzen … 8'09 11 4. Recitativo. Wer sollte sich demnach … 1'06 12 5. Aria. Mir ekelt mehr zu leben … 5'59 2 BIS-SACD-1621 Cantatas:booklet 17/9/07 11:57 Page 3 Geist und Seele wird verwirret, BWV 35 25'56 Kantate zum 12. Sonntag nach Trinitatis (8. September 1726) Text: Georg Christian Lehms 1711 Oboe I, II, Taille, Violino I, II, Viola, Alto, Organo obbligato, Continuo Prima Parte 13 1. Concerto 5'23 14 2. Aria. Geist und Seele wird verwirret … 8'04 15 3. Recitativo. Ich wundre mich … 1'25 16 4. Aria. Gott hat alles wohlgemacht … 3'16 Seconda parte 17 5. Sinfonia 3'28 18 6. Recitativo. Ach, starker Gott, lass mich … 1'15 19 7. Aria. Ich wünsche nur bei Gott zu leben … 2'52 20 Bekennen will ich seinen Namen, BWV 200 4'04 Aria unbekannter Bestimmung (Mariae Reinigung? ca. 1742) Text: anon. Violino I, II, Alto, Continuo TT: 77'21 Robin Blaze alto Bach Collegium Japan directed by Masaaki Suzuki 3 BIS-SACD-1621 Cantatas:booklet 17/9/07 11:57 Page 4 Bach Collegium Japan BWV 169 / 35 BWV 170 Soprano: Carolyn Sampson* Alto: Robin Blaze Alto: Robin Blaze Oboe d’amore: Masamitsu San’nomiya Tenore: Gerd Türk* Violino I: Natsumi Wakamatsu [leader] Basso: Peter Kooij* Violino II: Azumi Takada Oboe I: Masamitsu San’nomiya Viola: Yoshiko Morita Oboe II: Yukari Maehashi Continuo Taille: Atsuko Ozaki Violoncello: Hidemi Suzuki Violino I: Natsumi Wakamatsu [leader] Violone: Seiji Nishizawa Paul Herrera Yuko Takeshima Organo obbligato: Masaaki Suzuki Violino II: Kaori Toda Azumi Takada** Yuko Araki Satoki Nagaoka* BWV 200 Viola: Yoshiko Morita Alto: Robin Blaze Mutsumi Otsu* Violino I: Natsumi Wakamatsu Amiko Watabe** Violino II: Yuko Takeshima Continuo Continuo Violoncello: Hidemi Suzuki Violoncello: Hidemi Suzuki Violone: Takashi Konno Shigeru Sakurai** Organo: Masaaki Suzuki Bassono: Kiyotaka Dosaka** Yukiko Murakami* Cembalo: Naoya Otsuka Masato Suzuki** Organo: Naoko Imai** Organo obbligato: Masaaki Suzuki (*BWV 169 only / **BWV 35 only) 4 BIS-SACD-1621 Cantatas:booklet 17/9/07 11:57 Page 5 mong the multitude of forms and instru - mettle of his eldest son Wil helm Friedemann Bach, men tal forces that we encounter in the al - then an adolescent. A most 200 surviving church cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach, the so-called ‘classical’ Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust variety of Bach cantata for choir, several soloists (Contented Rest, Beloved Joy of the Soul), and an colourful orchestra com prising wind in - BWV 170 stru ments, strings and continuo stands at the oppo - Bach’s first Leipzig solo cantata was heard at the site extreme from the solo cantata for a single church service on the sixth Sunday after Trinity in voice. Cantatas of the latter type make up only a 1726, which that year fell on 28th July. The lib- small minority of the total. From Bach’s Weimar retto, comprising three arias and two recitatives, period, only two such works survive – one for alto comes from the collection Gottgefälliges Kirchen- (Widerstehe doch der Sünde [Stand firm against Opffer published in 1711 by the Darmstadt court sin], BWV 54) and one for soprano (Mein Herze poet Georg Chris tian Lehms (1684–1717), for schwimmt im Blut [My heart swims in blood], which Bach was also to turn shortly afterwards for BWV 199). In Leipzig, Bach was initially frugal the alto cantata Geist und Seele wird verwirret. as regards new compositions in this genre. Only Lehms refers only in vague terms to the gospel after he had produced what amounted to a kind of read ing for the day – Matthew 5, 20–26 – an ex - ‘standard repertoire’ of church cantatas in his first tract from the Sermon on the Mount, in which years of service there did he begin, in the summer Jesus demands from his disciples a stricter code of of 1726, to explore new ground in vari ous direc - conduct than that of the Jewish scribes and Phari - tions. Within the space of a few weeks he com - sees who are only concerned with fulfilling the posed the three cantatas for alto on this disc, and let ter of the law. For Bach’s librettist, their hypo - these were followed in the subsequent weeks and crit ical righteousness represents the general sin - months by five more solo works, including such ful ness of the world. The goal of the text is the splendid compositions as the bass cantatas Ich will Christian’s longed-for peace of the soul, his rejec - den Kreuzstab gerne tragen (I will the cross-staff tion of the world and his desire for the hereafter. gladly carry, BWV 56) and Ich habe ge nung (I Lehms’ text provides everything that a baroque have now enough, BWV 82). In the three alto composer could desire as sources of inspiration: cantatas, Bach takes another step into the musical arias with clearly defined emotional states and a unknown: he increasingly uses instru mental move- linguistic style that is rich in imagery and some- ments in his cantatas, and is par tic ularly fond of times even as graphic as a wood-cut. giving signi ficant soloistic duties to the organ, an In the opening aria, the inner repose and peace instrument that had hitherto only served to accom - of the soul that are praised in the text find expres - pany the basso continuo. As has sometimes been sion in a musical idyll that acquires its pastoral suggested, this may have been a way of testing the character from its gently lilting 12/8-time and 5 BIS-SACD-1621 Cantatas:booklet 17/9/07 11:57 Page 6 from the attractive timbre of the oboe d’amore. Geist und Seele wird verwirret The second aria, ‘Wie jammern mich doch die (Spirit and Soul become Confused), BWV 35 ver kehrten Herzen’ (‘How I lament the wayward Six weeks later, for the twelfth Sunday after Trini - hearts’), is one of the most remarkable movements ty (8th September 1726), Bach presented the Leip - in all of Bach’s cantatas. Among the instrumental zig congregation with another alto solo can tata, parts a leading role is assigned to the organ. It Geist und Seele wird verwirret, and this time too it plays strictly imitative, two-part writing in the des- was a work that gave the organ a chance to dem - cant register, a lower part being supplied by vio - on strate its capabilities as a virtuosic solo in stru - lins and viola in unison. The sound image is con - ment. As with the preceding work, the text comes fined exclusively to the upper register; the con- from the collection published in 1711 by Georg tinuo in stru ments and the bass are absent – per - Christian Lehms, and this one too com prises three haps as an image of the ‘waywardness’ of the sin - arias linked by two recitatives. Bach’s composi- ful hearts mentioned in the text. The emotions of tion, however, is more ample in scale. The cantata lamenta tion, disgust and pain are expressed by consists of two sections – to be played before and means of numerous ‘lamenting’ sighing figures, after the sermon – each of which is introduced by dissonant pro gressions, chromatic writing and a concertante movement for organ and orchestra. labyrinthine modulations. In addition, words such Ad mittedly Bach did not write these movements as ‘ich zittre’ (‘I tremble’), ‘Schmerzen’ (‘pains’), especially for this cantata; he evidently took them ‘Rach und Hass’ (‘revenge and hate’), ‘erfreun’ from an instrumental con cer to (now lost), perhaps (‘take joy’), ‘frech’ (‘impudently’) and ‘verlacht’ for oboe, from the Weimer or Köthen period, and (‘deride’) are set to music as vivid images. merely arranged them for the new instrumental Despite its dismissive opening words ‘Mir ekelt forces. Both are pieces of great momentum and mehr zu leben’ (‘I am sick of living any longer’ – power. The first is a con certo movement in the Ita - a concept to which Bach pays homage by incor- lian style with a striking ritor nello that is subjected por ating a ‘forbidden’ tritone interval at the begin - to intensive thematic work ing-out in the dialogue ning of the melody), the concluding aria is char - between solo instru ment and orchestra; the second acterized overall by confidence and relaxed, joyful is an engaging per petuum mobile introduced by the hope.